Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Today I managed a morning and afternoon walk. I probably walked the usual distance but the break in the middle gave my aching elderly feet a rest. The morning walk took me back up the towpath to Watford. A couple of interesting boats on the way,

Now this is an interesting roof garden

This Tupperware boat has a solid fuel stove inside with a chimney that is made from beer cans

The route back from Watford took me to a Morrison’s. Unfortunately they didn’t have the items I wanted and missed out on my business. Walking through a new commercial park I passed this electric BMW on charge.

I noticed some of these pods in Hemel Hempstead. Never seen them in Australia, but that may be due to the distances between locations.

Another first for me was the Amazon collection centre.

Amazon Locker. Another option for continuous cruises without a postal address

There was a footpath across ‘Common Moor’ which led to a former railway alignment and by following it I found myself back at the moorings on the River Chess where the CRT rubbish bins are located (yesterday’s post).

Both Les (nb Valerie) and Paul (Waterway Routes) have already explored this area. There are eight boats on permanent moorings here.

I also came upon the CRT water point. It’s in a rather strange location being positioned on the footpath with no obvious or easy access to the river.

The boats are behind the fence on the left and down a bank. The water point is so far from the canal it must be exclusively used by the boaters moored on the river.

The CRT rubbish bins are behind the hedge which is behind the cream boat in the distance.

My afternoon walk took me west out of Rickmansworth as far as the M25 London Orbital. An interesting walk through more countryside and this time I was able to record two short lengths of footpath not currently on the OSM.

The right arrow points at the location of the new Morrison’s supermarket. It’s reasonably close to the canal.

I can’t finish this post with mentioning a comment left on yesterday’s post by Marilyn (nb Waka Huia). It reminded me of the story about the young Alaskan backpacker who was in Europe doing his OE (overseas experience). He was staying in a cheap hostel in a small country town in Spain and had gone to see his first bullfight. That evening he went to a local restaurant and; not understanding or being able to read Spanish; he randomly pointed to a dish on the menu. His meal turned out to be vegies and two large meatballs covered in a tasty sauce. He was impressed and left a small tip. A week later he returned to the same small hostel after attending the ‘Running of the Bulls’ in Pamplona. Remembering the restaurant and the delicious meal he returned and ordered it again. Whilst the meal was just as good, the meatballs were much smaller. Thinking he might have left too small a tip on his previous visit he called over the waiter and complemented him on the meal but mentioned the size of the portion. The waiter was most apologetic and whilst wringing his hands commented “Ah senor….. the bull….. sometimes he wins!

Hi Tom, My first husband (I was a child bride ...) used to tell the story of staying in the Clarendon Hotel in Christchurch for work back in the late 60s when one of his colleagues was trying to disconcert the young waitress. When she asked what he wanted for breakfast he replied 'Elephant balls on toast.' Her reply: 'Sorry, no toast.'Sorry re the flag - I've not looked closely enough at your flag but have relied on other people's comments about your Aussie flag - I did think it was bizarre that you had a Maori boat name and an Aussie flag - I should have looked more closely!I am keen to head into London first as our first voyage this season - we are constrained by NZ's pension rules: we have to be in the country for at least 183 days out of 365. We are fine with that, even though we'd like to try a winter onboard!Cheers, M

This blog is about us, Tom and Jan.
After a decade of travelling from 'down-under' every two years to spend a brief few weeks having a wonderful canal holiday we decided to eliminate the travel and do it full time on retirement. In 2011 we moved to the UK and built Waiouru before spending 6 wonderful years cruising.
In 2017 we sold our lovely boat and moved back to Perth, West Australia where other adventures are on the 'bucket list'.